I made the mistake of taking too much cable off the winch drum today when pulling a friend out of a mud hole. I got him out, but just barely. My steel cable that came with my Warn M8000 seporated from the winch drum because I let out too much cable (stupid, I knew better!)
Now my cable is missing the end attachment point that secures it to the drum. Should I take the cable to a specialy shop and have a new end secured, or is there another solution? The cable is showing it's age with one kink in the middle of the line, other than that, the cable is good for being three years old. Should I use this as an excuse to switch to synthetic? I like the thought, but I'm afraid the synthetic won't hold up to the elements like my steel. What do you think?
Nathan
as a side note, this happened at Rocky Mountain Terrain Park in Maine. AMAZING place, well run and ton's of fun!!!

 

The fastener doesn't really do anything to help winch. You should always stop unspooling when there is 1.5-2 rows of cable on the spool.

Of course I have pulled mine off several times. (Slow learner) I got tired of putting a new end on, I just gorilla taped it. I also put tape on the cable so whomever is winching knows when to stop. No more pulling the line off the spool.

As far a kinked cable goes, that could be a problem. Syn line is better if you switch (I would).

 

This man speaks the truth

He's hit the nail on the head. Tape will work just peachy, but a kinked cable is a weakened cable.

I will never go back to steel cable after running synthetic on my 9.5ti. It's the cat's meow.

 

Thanks for the input guys. If I convert to synthetic line, I've also got to change out my roller head to hawse right? I've seen daystar polly replacement rollers. Anyone use those?

 

I have a roller in the front and a hawse in the rear--haven't seen any issues. Both winches have syn line. I will change out the roller in the front not because I've seen it do anything to my line, but because it gets in the way on steep approaches where I slide my bumper.

 

never go under 5 wraps on the drum, the end fitting is really not made to hold much weight. the wraps on the drum are what hold the weight

 

You could switch to a hawse fairlead, but you don't have to. You could run a set of the poly rollers, or you could even put new steel rollers on. The main thing is that you don't want to use those rollers on synthetic line after they've been used on steel line. The same thing goes for your snatchblock.

Why? The little nicks and gouges that the steel cable leaves behind can do bad things to your nice new synthetic line.